Brigadoon (1954)

Some parts were slow. Things just seemed to drag on and on.Van Johnson didn't have much of a story, or much to do. He was being chased by one of the local man-hungry females, and he was mightily offended.Of course, Gene Kelly had the romantic lead part. Dancing with Cyd Charisse in the Heather on the Hill segment, collecting heather for the wedding, was just too smarmy IMO. They were getting too sensually/sexually close for having just met. I realize all the village single women were starved for affection, but this was a bit much. Fiona Campbell was just too pretty not to have tons of the local single men chasing her, BTW.The wedding dance was lovely, with the bride and groom leading off. Hugh Laing as the ticked off ex-suitor of Bonnie Jean was way too smoldering, with a hell-bent strange behavior and so self-destructive. That he jumped into the big dance scene and started almost manhandling Jean was weird, yet I was almost cheering him on to sweep her away out of there. I did feel sorry for Harry Beaton, and wish I could have seen more dancing from the great Hugh Laing.Gene Kelly's pants were way too tight. Ugh.

In this wonderful M-G-M musical from Lerner and Lowe, you can't keep from being taken with this place of happiness, romance, and love, even if the Scottish village of Brigadoon was artificial. (Because of existing budget problems when the movie was made about 1954, M-G-M could not film on location.) The songs were unforgettable, such as "Come Ye to the Fair", "The Heather on the Hill", "Go Home with Bonnie Jean", and "It's Almost Like Being in Love." The wedding-scene music, replete with Scottish bagpipes from eight Scottish clans, was extremely impressive. The cast was well-chosen. Gene Kelly did so well as the love-sick Tommy Albright, Van Johnson was definitely adept at playing the drunk friend of Albright named Jeff Douglas, Elaine Stewart was skillful in the role of Albright's snobbish and disgusting fiancée Jane, and truly, to be around Cyd Charisse would make a person be in love with the beautiful Fiona Campbell. Again, the scenery was beautiful as well as the songs. Far-fetched as it was, the story was wonderful. For many reasons, the fictitious Scottish town Brigadoon would render the town, again, an unforgettable "mind-sticker".

Out of MGM, Brigadoon is a CinemaScope production filmed in Ansco Color. It's directed by Vincente Minnelli and adapted to screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner from the Broadway play of the same name. It stars Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Cyd Charise. Musical numbers are by Lerner and Frederick Loewe, with orchestration by Conrad Salinger, and cinematography is by Joseph Ruttenberg. Plot has Kelly and Johnson as two Americans on a hunting trip in Scotland, who after becoming lost in the woods happen upon a village called Brigadoon. A strange place that's not on any map of Scotland……… Kicked by the critics and receiving moderate funds at the box office, Brigadoon is evidently one of the lesser lights from the musicals branch of MGM. Genuine complaints about no outdoor location work and scrimping on the songs from the play hold up under scrutiny. As does the charge that it is in fact a bit lifeless in direction and acting performances. But it's far from the dreary flop it has often been painted as. As colourful entertainment the film has enough about it to not waste the viewers time. The central idea is lovely, a mystical place inhabited by ebullient Scots that pops up once every hundred years, existing as a social comment that other parts of the world have gotten themselves into one big noise laden hurry, while a sweet finale provides the notion that love can indeed conquer all. The songs and routines, too, are enjoyable, notably Kelly doing deft harmony for "Almost Like Being In Love", the foot tapping delight of Celtic strong "The Wedding Dance" (danced by Jimmy Thompson & Virginia Bosler) and the heartily sang "The Chase" (various men during the pursuit of rebel Hugh Laing). While Ruttenberg's Scope/Color photography is most pleasing, putting vim and vigour into the very standard painted sets that form the back drops to the story.However, it's impossible not to yearn for more from Minnelli and MGM. Producing it all on the sound stage means it lacks air, vitality, and they must have known this would be the case because the film was originally going to be filmed on location in Scotland. The nasty weather and eventual cost cutting exercises meant the production would ultimately be surrounded by false countryside and billowing mist machines. A shame, because if ever a story called for vibrant snatches of Mother Natures Earth to realise the whimsy, then this is it. The cast are also a mixed bag, with Charise and Kelly going thru the motions and a host of iffy accents puncturing the air. Johnson is an odd casting choice, but I'm in the minority that doesn't mind his performance. He's the sarcastic cynic to Kelly's dreamy optimist, with Johnson content to rightly play in Kelly's shadow. His scenes back in the bar in New York are good value. Kelly and Minnelli were not singing from the same page, this would be common knowledge further down the line, as would the revelation that Minnelli was never a fan of the play anyway! It does show, but in spite of the obvious flaws there's enough warmth and hummable whimsy to lift it comfortably above average in the pantheon of MGM musicals. 6.5/10

The fairy tale has never gone out of fashion. In an era looked back on as one in which Hollywood was maturing and story lines were becoming more serious, the Arthur Freed unit at MGM could still see its way to producing a work of such dreamy make-believe as Brigadoon. Brigadoon is far more than a syrupy love story, and even goes beyond the light fantasy elements of It's a Wonderful Life. With its story of a "blessed" village that only appears once ever hundred years, it is more in the line of an old world folk tale, and as such it's bound to come across as slightly silly when realised in a modern medium acted out by real people. In anticipation of this writer Alan Jay Lerner created the character of Jeff Douglas, a world-weary cynic who could pre-empt any audience objections in the form of comic relief. And yet even a shameless sentimentalist like me has enough of a mischievous streak to find herself wondering how the inhabitants of Brigadoon will react when they wake up in 2054 to find Scotland has been covered in tarmac or flooded by global warming.So what is there to defend the credibility of Brigadoon? Well, for a start the music happens to be rather good. The original stage production was the one of the first collaborations between celebrated duo Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. As he often did, Loewe shows his ability to take up the musical style of another culture and come up with some authentic-sounding yet catchy tunes. Here he takes Celtic folk music as his basis, but with a little hint of Broadway brass in the arrangements, yet never enough to sound discordant or inappropriate. Lerner shows touches of the wit that would later become his trademark, for example rhyming "knows'll" with "proposal" mid-line in "Waiting for My Dearie". The music is not quite geared as much to emphasise his lyrics as would be their later and better-known scores, which is a shame, and yet it doesn't matter much as it still contains many of Loewe's most beautiful musical moments.Then there is the direction of Vincente Minnelli, shooting his first picture in cinemascope. He shows no awkwardness with new aspect ratio, probably because he was always adept at balancing lots elements on the screen. His staging of musical numbers is incredibly sensitive as always, using bits of background business to match the subtleties of the orchestral arrangements. In the first chorus of "Waiting for My Dearie" Cyd Charisse is relatively still, but there is just a little bit of movement from another lass glimpsed through a doorway, which is not enough to distract attention from Charisse but just enough to give the song some life visually. It's an effective cross between realistic activity and dancing. You can see examples of it in every number, from the massive complexity of "Down on MacConnachy Square", where hundreds of actions are all part of one meticulously arranged dance, to the simplicity of "The Heather on the Hill" where the only extra movement is the occasional twitching of branches in the breeze.As the Freed unit's hottest young male lead, it was more or less inevitable that Gene Kelly would get cast in the lead role for Brigadoon. However this picture makes far less use of his dancing skills than do the more worldly musicals he was used to starring in. Still, he was always a decent actor and competent singer, and his breezy personality seems apt for the desperate romanticism of Brigadoon's story. As his grouchy sidekick Van Johnson seems to have found a niche in the sort of role that usually went to Oscar Levant, and he's in fact so likable despite his cynicism it's a shame his character's arc doesn't really get finished off. While not a great actress Cyd Charisse brings a balletic gracefulness to the role of the leading lady, and she certainly does a better job of being Scottish than she does of being Russian in Silk Stockings. And though many in the supporting cast vie for the title of Worst Scots Accent, there is a clear winner in Jimmy Thompson. Thompson had been a bit player in a couple of previous MGM musicals, and it's a mystery why we have to endure him bumbling his way through a major role here. Still, given that the whole picture is steeped in such an atmosphere of cheery innocence, it's perhaps better that the acting performances don't get too earnest.Perhaps the most phoney thing of all about Brigadoon is its scenery. Shot on sound stages, complete with painted backdrops of mountains and gloomy skies, billows of piped mist and the occasional goat wondering where it can get some fresh air, this is Scotland as you see it on a souvenir shortbread tin. But this is again something that works in the movie's favour. If the story is like something out of those early Disney features, then perhaps so too should be its presentation. In an animated picture the artists have complete control over every element on the screen, and it's almost the same for Minnelli and Freed with this artificial outdoor landscape and those worthy but stilted acting performances, making everything more like paints on a palette than players on a stage. It somehow makes the plot more acceptable because the world it takes place in is never allowed to become too real in the first place. It is ultimately the utter and obvious fakery of Brigadoon that bridges the gap between its cinematic realisation and its fairytale roots.